The commercial consequences of Sunday’s Ramsdens’ Cup Final result didn’t occur to me until Celtic released season ticket news yesterday. Over the years, when possible, Celtic and Rangers released season ticket renewal notices on the back of a favourable result.
As well as a party at Ibrox on Sunday night, the wheels would have been ready to roll with photographs of newly acquired silverware and a plea from the most expensive failed-yet-retained manager in history to renew early. There may even have been a price increase this year, slipped in amid the feel-good factor.
There has been a lot of talk about how critical season ticket sales are to Newco Rangers but we are no different. The circa 40,000 people who commit to support Celtic each season are the rock bed upon which all plans are made. Sure, Champions League money is critical, but without this volume of season ticket sales there would be no Champions League money. The season ticket is the Badge of Honour in Scottish football, during these critical years more than any other time.
In 2012 when we campaigned to deny a new club access to an elevated position in Scottish football we did so in the knowledge that competition in the league would be different going forward. This was our preference. While actual attendances have often been below season ticket levels I know that to a man, woman and child, everyone who pitches up to watch Celtic appreciates being apart from the scourge which afflicted us for so many years. This is the way I like my football, long may it last.
Seville – The Celtic Movement
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Paul 67, got to disagree with your take on the Griffiths saga. We should not be dictated to by the Daily Record that is correct. I agree with the sentiments of education in this instance but what will Nike and Magners make of this? Presumably other potential brands attracted to the club and even potential fans will not be put off by us taking less than a hard line on this?
Celtic should have banned the DR years ago but was there not some issue around advertising that stopped this? I have no time for people copying and pasting from Jack Irvines e-mails but this piece actually carried some weight. Someone took the trouble to investigate Celtics HR policy on Racism. They forced the club to consider writing off an asset worth more than the £800k we will ultimately pay. As an aside I see the record also having a pop at Ally McCoist. Perhaps the newspaper has grown a brain in the absence of Jack Irvine? It has to be an improvement on so called journalists taking bribes from a company they are meant to be impartial from. Not to mention taking info via illegal means allegedly. See Neil Lennons comments on Leveson. If these things are true then why oh why did we ever deal with the DR?
These so called press men are scumbags. They rightly earn that title after years of scumbag behaviour. Apologies to those reading that don’t earn their salary by stealing information or being fed tit bits from the succulent table.
The Battered Bunnet
13:49 on 8 April, 2014
Natknow
The bookies agree. Norwich odds on to stay up. All others long, with Fulham shortest at 2/1.
——————————————————
You can understand why I rarely bet?! :-)
the long wait is over.
No. And no suggestion of that from me either.
Surely the heid coach down Ibrox way is still not on his full whack ?
If so , I’m sure his severence pay will have to reflect this .#wortheverypenny
Phil MacGiollaBhain@Pmacgiollabhain·31 mins
I must have missed the memo…
So please someone point me to the Club/Company statement where Super Ally signed off on his pay cut.
Green Lantern
Fair do’s
Tlwio
Boys and girls – I’m being advised by non-panic merchant IT security guys I know that banking or paying online might not be a good idea in the next 24-48 hours.
A major security flaw in OpenSSL that’s been dubbed the Heartbleed bug. Worth checking out.
One of the songs sung(!!) by the sleekit one was ‘Daydream Believer’.
Allegedly of course.
HH!!
Strong statement, Paul.
They are no more.
Things will never be the same again.
———–
‘I write it out in a verse—
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
—-
Richie, Sipsini, furthers my point I think.
THM, I know you can’t apply for it, but neither can you marry into it if you are a Roman Catholic. And as Richie and Sipsini pointed out Prime Minister.
Even recently Tony Blair had to wait until he left office before converting.
Turkey bhoy, nice to see you have calmed from calling me a monkey and a Hun yesterday. Human flaws make life interesting but painful for those that suffer at the hand of the flawed individual. Leigh is flawed as was Jinky but Jinky wasn’t filmed by his Scotland team mates disappearing over the horizon at Largs. It didn’t end up on YouTube or embedded in an online article.
I accept flaws and differences of opinion but hundreds of thousands of normal folk like me are subject to HR policy that limits online comment and most certainly would’t make allowance for what is being seen as a racist chant. Footballers now earn about 10k per week. Celtic pay taxes on this so I am assuming half of that goes into a bank account for 52 weeks of the year. These guys are paid to be responsible human beings. I can accept an aberration particularly when football is own to folk from all walks of life but that is it.
mullet and co 2
13:50 on 8 April, 2014
—
Doubt nike can take much of a moral high ground considering stories about how their products are made.
Weeminger
In addition, today Microsoft have stopped all support and updates for windows XP.
I’m sure the hackers and cyber-thieves will be working overtime!
DOC 1230
You raise a good point,bud. Personally I have never had a conversation with anyone down here about my religion,but England is by definition legally and institutionally sectarian.
I don’t believe Scotland is,as there are no barriers-officially-to attainment of office.
Indeed even to being a Scottish monarch,as the last one-MQOS-was Catholic.
Strange that it is practiced in Scotland but rarely in England.
7 April 2014 Last updated at 21:18
Business and economy editor, Scotland
The very slow slaying of Sir David’s Goliath
An interesting read – but the biggest insight into the sleazy world that these people inhabit came towards the end of the article:
At least as interesting is who’s buying these assets. Step forward… the Murray family. It has a 70% stake in MIH, but it also owns other vehicles for buying fire-sale assets.
For the majority of assets in the the Murray Estates property portfolio, MIH received what’s called “an unsolicited approach from the Murray family”. We’re told the discussions between the new family firm and the firm controlled by the family were protracted.
They know every trick in the book!
Tony Blair did not have to wait until he left office before joining the church. He simply elected to wait. You’ll need to ask him why.
Doc
You can marry a future monarch if you are Muslim or Hindu, but not RC.
A package arrived on my doorstep this fine day, it contained one of the finest
publications i have ever seen, it was accompanied by several items of the finest
Celtic mementoes.
My I take this opportunity, to express my admiration to all the CQNers, who selfishly
gave of their time and intellect, to make this possible.
If you missed Seville, do not miss this opportunity to address that loss.
This wonderful publication is a ‘must not miss’ item.
Bless you all, and thank you for signing It.
I stand in awe of you all!
H.H.
TBB
Because he is a slimebag with no cojones?
LG stood on a chair/table in a bar somewhere…….everything else is conjecture.
JF flashed his dick TWICE in one night…..,
I know which is the more shameful
Just saying
I’m Neil Lennon (tamrabam)
13:47 on
8 April, 2014
Now since they dont have a 20 million quid share issue heading their way next season, they look very likely to go into administration next season, if they last that long. Question is, If you were in the shoes of the sevco leadership (ahem…..) would you go into administration now and take a 10 point deduction this season or wait until next season when there is wage bill cuts on one side and a better standard of opposition on the other side and when 10 points might be desperately required
(Sevco leadership? what am I like?)
____________________
Surely you can’t go into administration & still win the league title?
Sounds like cheating to me.
Just catching up, some points already made.
Just because something is not on the statute does not mean the establishment in the U.K. will stand for it happening.
” I know that to a man, woman and child, everyone who pitches up to watch Celtic appreciates being apart from the scourge which afflicted us for so many years.”
I don’t know if it was mentioned previously, but at the end of ‘off the ball’ on Saturday, both Graham Speirs and Tom English, expressed the view that they still consider us and the new Sevco as the ‘OF’ despite acknowleging that Celtic supporters find it offensive
Now both these guys, are not your avaerage tabloid reporter, and have moved from their respective papers to the BBC
Education needs to take place, not only with certain footballers, but with BBC pundits also.
Richie, as I say, just because the law allows it does not mean the Establishment will stand for it.
Richie #TeamOscar
14:07 on
8 April, 2014
Doc
You can marry a future monarch if you are Muslim or Hindu, but not RC.
Only if you can get out of a Paris Tunnel alive!
Doc
Bang on….see Willie Waddell.
Are you heading north tomorrow?
Is there any legal bar to a Catholic being an SNP cabinet minister?
Or is there some other reason why there’s never been one?
Richie #TeamOscar
if you were a Satan worshipper, an atheist, a Scientologist, a Mormon, Pagan, Jewish, Buddist or a Jedi Knight there is nothing in law to stop you becoming British Monarch.
BMCUWP’s. Playing the Devils Advocate here.
In Scotland Presbyterians feel threatened as there is nothing in Law that would stop RC’s achieving the highest office.
In England Anglicans have no such fear.
Perhaps that suggests a reason for the differing attitudes.
No more than a theory, and there are a myriad of other factors at play.
Perception, myth ignorance, all tools used to divide.
Again work calls.
Richie, waiting for a call to confirm or delay.
if you were a Satan worshipper, an atheist, a Scientologist, a Mormon, Pagan, Jewish, Buddist or a Jedi Knight there is nothing in law to stop you becoming British Monarch.
Has anyone got the application form. ? I think I’m a perfect match
ernie lynch at 14:13
I think it terrible for you to suggest that the SNP would have some policy not to have Roman Catholics in their cabinet, what kind of country do you think this is.
The reason is simply that they haven’t, ahem, found one good enough yet.
TBB, to further what Richie says, someone had a word with him and persuaded him, perhaps.
DJ67, :-)
Posted this last night but no interest so I’ll try again.
Sky have bought GAA rights (not a late April fool).
This is a mock-up of Sky Sports Saturday covering the GAA.
You’ll need headphones or speakers. It’s only 3-4 minutes long but it’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in years.
http://www.todayfm.com/Gift-Sky-Sports-GAA
It’s the 3rd item with Phil Thompson gasping at the screen.
Example –
“While Paul Merson was monitoring Kilkenny v Wexford (“THEY’VE COME OUT WIF STICKS, JEFF!!”), Phil Thompson was on duty for Cork v Kerry (“HE’S CLEAN THROUGH, JEFF . . . NOOOOOO, HE’S PUT IT OVER THE BAR!!!”), the fella befuddled when asked who won. “Eeeeeh, I’m not sure Jeff. It’s, eeeeeeh, 6-17 to 3-23 . . . I’ll get me calculator.””
Talking of commercial consequences…
This is the current article from the oft and wrongly maligned Douglas Fraser, Business & Economy Editor at BBC Scotland.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-26927245
….all about the curious case of MIH and the slow liquidation of all it’s assets.
In a paragraph that will warm a few hearts
“In precisely the same words recently used of Rangers International Football Club, the holding company at Ibrox, the MIH auditors say there is “existence of a material uncertainty which casts significant doubt about the group’s ability to continue as a going concern”.
HH
And for those who cannot access via the link
“It was Rangers that brought Sir David Murray fame. His fortune had more to do with metal and property.
The connection with the Ibrox club probably brings more notoriety than fame these days, given the way in which he sold it on, disastrously, to Craig Whyte.
And much as he said in last year’s accounts from his holding company, Murray International Holdings (MIH), Sir David profoundly regrets having done that, remaining “staggered” at the revelations that followed, bitterly disappointed at the outcome and saddened at ongoing uncertainty.
There’s a lot else in these accounts that are staggering for the scale of the losses elsewhere. And yet there’s oddly little sign of any disappointment that the Murray business empire has been almost entirely dismantled.
Hitting the recession, many other companies – and particularly those exposed to property losses – had the plug pulled by their bank. The process can be rapid and brutal.
But Lloyds Banking Group – inheriting the splurged loan book of Halifax Bank of Scotland – has allowed Sir David the chance to sell off his assets piece by piece. It didn’t appear to leave him much choice. But it’s taken five years so far, and it’s still been rather brutal.
Harsh measures
First was Rangers, famously handed over for one pound. The cost of the legal fight with HM Revenue and Customs over its tax affairs has since cost his company £2.5m, and it’s not over yet.
The following year, ending June 2012, saw much of the steel business go. There followed a management buy-out of Premier Hytemp, supplying the oil and gas industry, which remained a lot healthier, but still resulted in a £10m loss to MIH on its sale.
More recent times, including the period since the end of these 2012-13 accounts, have seen some harsh measures being applied to the property portfolio.
Three shopping centres have been sold, for less than half of what they cost. And without them, Murray International Holdings is admitting that it can’t meet its pension obligations. It’s still trying to negotiate lower benefits than beneficiaries had been promised.
Likewise, it’s still trying to find a buyer for Response, the contact centre business. It lost a big Sky contract, but has since won another one for Scottish Power, claiming the energy utilities’ woes offer a rich opportunity for contact centre expansion.
However, I’m told (from sources outside MIH) that rival companies offered a chance to buy have not been attracted by the state of the business.
As a result of this offloading, group turnover in the year to last June was down to £85m from £351m. The operating loss on ordinary activities, before exceptional items, has fallen too, from £13m to £7.6m.
Debts and impairments
But on exceptional items – and MIH has just posted an exceptional set of accounts – the loss is breathtaking.
With £95m impairment losses on development property and land, the pre-tax loss for 2012-13 came to £142m.
And if you’re wondering why Lloyds Banking Group is indulging this slow-motion corporate train wreck, it’s at least partially explained by net liabilities last June of £225m, compared with £80m the previous year.
Amounts owed to creditors last June within one year: £151m. Falling due after more than one year: £225m.
You won’t be surprised to know that Sir David is rather grateful to Lloyds Banking Group, as both lender and shareholder. “The partnership approach is genuinely appreciated by the group and the directors,” he writes.
That said, one of the three directors quit last year. Sir Angus Grossart, the long-time chief dealmaker of Edinburgh finance, left the MIH board in July.
In precisely the same words recently used of Rangers International Football Club, the holding company at Ibrox, the MIH auditors say there is “existence of a material uncertainty which casts significant doubt about the group’s ability to continue as a going concern”.
And with hard times biting, the highest-paid director – let’s assume that’s Sir David Murray – earned £391,000 for the accounting year, down from £813,000.
‘Significant achievement’
At least as interesting is who’s buying these assets. Step forward… the Murray family. It has a 70% stake in MIH, but it also owns other vehicles for buying fire-sale assets.
For the majority of assets in the the Murray Estates property portfolio, MIH received what’s called “an unsolicited approach from the Murray family”.
We’re told the discussions between the new family firm and the firm controlled by the family were protracted.
At the end of this tale of woe, perhaps the strangest bit is that Sir David Murray presents it as a sort of triumph: “In the prevailing economic conditions since 2009, the delivery of the numerous asset disposals and debt reduction programme represents a significant achievement and a very credible performance.”
Douglas Fraser, Business and economy editor, Scotland
GREENDREAMZ
Apart from your comment being conjecture-and also sub judice-if it is true,he’s a braver man than I.
If I was as p….d as he seems to have been,I’d have had trouble finding mine,and I doubt anyone would have noticed anyway.
Petethebeat
Quality :-)
PeteTheBeat
Someone posted it a little while ago…..funny as freckles!